Vasovagal syncope and periods?

[MDKS]

My daughter has had vasovagal syncope most of her 11 years, her big trigger is blood,… shes 11 now what on earth do we do about her starting her period? 😫😭

Does she react this way to her own blood or just to other people's?

Assuming she has this issue with period blood (which not all women with a blood phobia do), some ways of dealing with periods are less “bloody” than others.

For example - a tampon means no blood when wiping, and it can be removed and disposed of without much need to look at it. Although obviously she will need to look a bit because she’ll need to know when her period is over. And she’ll see a bit of blood at the start.

I use reusable pads which have a black lining, so there is blood when I wipe, but the blood on the pad just looks like a darker black - just like the fabric is wet rather than bloody. If she wore these/period underwear a lot, and didn’t look when she wiped, she might be fine. Because it’s not like tampons - you could wear the pads a couple of days before your period is due, until a couple of days after you think you finish, and then never really need to look at whether your period has finished.

Standard disposable pads with a white lining are probably the worst option.

Any blood at all x

Oh hi, I was (still am, annoyingly!) just like your daughter. My period came aged 11 and it did trigger the vasovagal response at first and I was very very worried about how I would cope. It’s a very long time ago so I don’t remember fully, but it didn’t actually take many months to get used to it. It helped that the first few were very light, and not bright red blood. I do remember a few anxious days lying in bed worrying, but that was probably the first one. I think I essentially dissociated it with normal blood somehow.